Starting Over

So last week I talked about my struggles and boredom with the game. Instead of continuing my helpless dynasty, I decided to start fresh using the information that I learned from playing the game the first time around. I stuck with the same team (the Chicago Bulls) and used real life information such as salaries, prospective free agents, and expiring contracts as the basis of my strategy. When I picked my team, I immediately shed as much salary as I possibly could. I decided that I would sacrifice one winning season to obtain a high draft pick and make a run a premier free agent such as Lebron James, Dwayne Wade or Chris Bosh. My lackluster season earned me the first pick in the entire draft, and through the trade wire, I was able to obtain the second pick in the draft as well. I selected a shooting guard from Greece, and a power forward from Syracuse. After the draft, I had a glaring hole at Small Forward and 45 million dollars in cap room to work with. Fortunately enough for me, Lebron James couldn't resist the money and opportunity to play in a large city such as Chicago. After the first day of free agency, my starting lineup was Derrick Rose, Lebron James, Johkim Noah, and my two prized rookies.

Having the rookies play alongside 3 veteran players has boded exceptionally well for my team. While they are still young and make youthful mistakes, they are progressing nicely with the veteran leadership. The two things that I am doing better this time around is playing more games and simulating less, and saving more salary for role players on the bench. I noticed that players get tired very easily in the game and every team needs strong bench players to carry the load when the starters have to come out of the game.

I am finding that since I have more experience playing the game, I am enjoying the game much more the second time around because I am learning from my mistakes. Learning from your mistakes is probably the most essential part of playing video games because the game doesn't change. Levels and conclusions are predetermined in virtually every game. Thus, in order to keep progressing, we need to learn from our mistakes and correct them. One might ask, how are sports games predetermined if every game can result in either a win or a loss? While wins and losses certainly aren't predetermined, winning a championship and having a successful dynasty requires a particular formula that I am just beginning to uncover. Hopefully in my next blog post I can fill everyone in on some new keys to success that I will have learned.

Reaching the Plateau

I don't know whether it was spring break or the break from posting but for some reason I feel like my interest in playing NBA 2k10 is beginning to fade. This made me start questioning myself. Did I exhaust myself by playing so much from the very beginning? Have I learned everything that the game could possibly teach me? Is it possible that I will never reach the same excitement level that I did when I played the game for the very first time?

As I sit and think about these questions, I have come to the conclusion that my boredom is a product of my game selection. Role player games appear to be better for extended periods of playing time because new levels and feats are unlocked as players reach new goals and accomplishments. Maybe my game playing experience would increase at this point if I set new goals for myself. Maybe the fact that I have so much control over game simulation that I have come to terms with mediocrity. If set goals for myself, I will be forced to play more games and simulate less, which may provide a new excitement and spark things up. After all, motiving oneself can be a seemingly impossible task without a destination in mind.

In order to test my hypothesis, I took a break from my Chicago Bulls franchise and begin playing a single player career. I thought that if I had to control one player (myself) versus an entire team, I might be more dedicated and passionate about playing. I don't know if it's because I am playing the game as myself or if the game mode is more appealing but the single player career mode has been much more entertaining and pleasing. In the next few days, I'll be sure to switch back to my beloved Bulls in the hopes of winning our first NBA championship.

The Insider Principle

Last week I wrote about Gee's Principles, and I figured that I would stick with the same theme for this week's post. The principle I wanted to talk about this week is "The Insider Principle", which states that the learner is an insider, teacher and producer.... not just a consumer and that they are able to customize their learning experience and domain/game from the beginning and throughout the experience.

My experience playing NBA2k10 is unique and personal to me. Each person who plays the game derives their own personal life lessons and educational values. In some sense, my fate and my learning experience was determined at the startup screen when I customized the settings of my dynasty and my team. If I had selected to remove the injuries option during simulation, I wouldn't have had to experience the frustration of simulating a series of games without a pop up screen stopping my simulation. Additionally, my learning experienced would have been altered had I picked the Los Angeles Lakers or Oklahoma City Thunder instead of my beloved team. Hypothetically, had I chosen the Los Angeles Lakers, my learning experience would have been greatly different because their roster was incredible and I would have been able to simulate a season and offseason without the difficulties of financial problems and losing. Further, had I elected to be the Thunder, I may have struggled in the preliminary season but the youth on my team would naturally progress over time without having to worry about finances, team chemistry, or trading.

While the NBA2k game itself is the same for everyone who purchases it, everyones playing experience is greatly different. No two people have played the exact same game, made the exact same trade, or drafted the same exact player. Thus, when we progress our teams and make basic decisions in the game we are customizing our own learning experience. Just like my trade that I talked about last week in acquiring Kobe Bryant, had I not made that trade I wouldn't have learned the importance of team chemistry and synergy.

The Psychosocial Moratorium Principle

When we first read Gee's book and learned about his principles of learning, one of the concepts that truly resonated with me was his psychosocial moratorium principle. In short, Gee summarizes his principle by stating that "learners can take risks in a space where real-world consequences are lowered." I really liked this principle because it illustrates the notion that video games act as real world simulations without the dangerous life consequences. In my video game playing this past week, I saw firsthand this principle come to fruition.

Everything was going great with my Chicago Bulls dynasty when I realized that I needed to make some monetary transactions in order to resign a key player. In my attempt to shed salary, I realized that I could make a trade with the Los Angeles Lakers that would bring me Kobe Bryant and a few minor players while simultaneously keeping Derek Rose, my star youngster Omar Chavez, and the rest of a team that made it to the Eastern Conference Finals the year before. Reluctantly, I accepted the trade, thus taking the risk of destroying a team that was on the verge of winning a championship.

The new season began and we were off to a great start. Derek Rose's play continued to improve while Kobe Bryant proved he was still the same all-star he was with the Lakers. However, as the season progressed, our play began to decline and slide down a slippery slope. Currently, about halfway through the season, we find ourselves in 11th place in the Eastern Conference and on the outside looking in on the playoff race.

This example is a perfect illustration of Gee's 6th principle. In life, all of us have the common sense to keep things the way they are when they are going well. Because of the fact that there no life altering consequences in playing video games, I was willing to take a risk of changing up a team. In real life, this simple mistake would have cost a GM his job and the prospect of being hired again in the future. For me, my mistake simply cost me one unfortunate season of basketball.

Updating Technology

Recently we have read articles and books about the use of modern technology and how schools need to keep up with modern technology so that they can keep pace with the technological levels of their students. This concept really got me thinking about the importance of technology and keeping up to date with your target market (in this case video game lovers). In my opinion, the thing that sets NBA 2k1o apart from all the other games is the fact that this years version has all the updates that satisfy its audience. Whether its the consistent use of the appropriate advertisements from T-Mobile and Sprite, to the names and voices of the announcers, to Lebron James throwing the chalk in front of the scorers table before tip off, NBA 2K10 has successfully adapted to fit the needs of its fan base.

The other day while I was playing, a friend of mine walked into the room, looked at the TV and had to do a double take before he realized that I was playing a video game and not watching NBA on TV. The graphics and player characteristics are so accurate and precise that one would question how long it takes the producers to make the game. To me, the most remarkable thing about video games is the fact that the price of X-Box and Play Station games has remained fairly consistent over the past few years even though the graphics and technology in the games has greatly advanced. I think it's fair to assume that the graphics and use of modern technology costs considerably more then the old input prices and I would be interested to see how video game revenues have faired over the past few years.

I can only imagine how video games will change change and adapt in the near future. With the use of "online" downloading capabilities, graphics, and gameplay features, game companies (sports in particular) will have to compete with themselves, let alone the rest of the market share, to create new games that satisfy the desires of the gaming world.

Trial and Error

When I first started playing NBA 2K10, I struggled immensely. The game controls were new and difficult to grasp, the computer was much more challenging to play against, and I felt completely out of rhythm. Not only did I struggle when I played, but when I simulated games, my teams were losing and I couldn't understand why. My players had solid rankings, I had a combination of youth and veteran leadership, and players with a variety of talent. Unfortunately, the first two seasons I played ended with me losing the majority of my games and winding up with a top 5 pick in the NBA Draft Lottery.

Just like in life, my gameplay experience taught me that I needed to make changes. I used the "trial and error" method to see what was wrong. First, I noticed that my payroll was way too high and that I needed to clear up cap space and avoid overpaying veteran players. Second, I found out that instead of progressing as the season went on, players like Shaq and Steve Nash were not performing to the level that I had expected they would play at. As soon as I traded them, I noticed a positive jump in my teams performance. By the end of the season, we had made the playoffs, and although we didn't make it to the championship, we were heading in the right direction.

This was the first real life application that I was faced with in the game. When we experience hardships, we need to find a way to get through them and the trial and error process helped me analyze the situation, explore my options, make a critical decision, and use statistical analysis to weigh the outcome. This process is something we do every day of our lives whether or not we are subconsciously aware of it.

Why 2K10 (January 21st 2010)

For my first post, I wanted to talk about why I picked NBA 2K10. If you know me, I am an avid sports fan. However, my experience playing sports games is pretty much limited to Madden and the NCAA College football series. I thought that playing a basketball game would be fun, and keep me interested for an entire semester. After I knew that I wanted to play a basketball game, the choice was between the 2K version and the EA Sports version. Whether it was FIFA, NHL, Madden, or NCAA, every sports game I have ever played was made by EA and I figured that playing a game made by a different company would broaden my perspective of video games. Besides the unbelievable graphics, the part of the game that seems most intriguing to me is the dynasty mode. It is my dream job to be the GM of a professional sports team and running a sports franchise in a video game is the closest I can physically get at this point in my life.

Since I got the game, I have begun my dynasty with my beloved Chicago Bulls. I have played two complete seasons and unfortunately have not had too much success. However, things are looking optimistic for season three. A new coach and a couple rookies may just bring the bulls back to the playoffs.